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Vincent Tan (right) stepped down from the corporate suite to focus on a critical mission: help Malaysians speak the language of the global economy.

This is our fifth annual roster of the region’s top philanthropists, and it includes a Korean who gave a huge swatch of unspoiled land to the Korea Forest Service, an Australian who opened a museum in Tasmania with some bizarre exhibits and a Singaporean woman who helped bring three dinosaur skeletons from the U.S. All the honorees are making their mark in their own way, whether it’s a billionaire ­donating most of his wealth to ambitious endeavors that will long outlive him or someone of more modest means contributing to needy neighbors or poor schoolchildren.

The selections are subjective; a ranking of donors isn’t possible because figures for contributions just aren’t available. Instead we aim for a mix of notable people—four from each of 12 jurisdictions—and causes. We also try to identify an entirely new group of philanthropists each year, though a few people here are returning to the list because of a big donation or project announced in the past year. And we pick only true philanthropists—people who are giving their own money, not their company’s (unless they own most of the company), because donating shareholder funds is not actually charity. If highlighting these 48 generous souls encourages more people to support worthy causes, then we’ll deem our project a big success.